RomNor Theatre AU
by Darkthorn998
Summary: Human AU. They find eachother in the theatre club, where Vlad is an aspiring actor whereas Lukas prefers to stay behind the scenes.
1. Chapter 1

Lukas rolled his eyes. Another day on set and the Romanian kid was doing as awfully as ever. He just didn't get why someone so untalented at performing would ever convince himself it was a good idea to sign up for theatre club. He was a bad actor, to put it kindly. More truthfully, his acting was atrocious, and frankly Lukas didn't see how he had managed to land as many parts as he had, the teachers must have found his personality endearing and felt sorry for him, the excitable idiot.

Lukas had signed up for a job on the lighting in the theatre, it wasn't exactly his dream job but he was too shy to sign up for anything else, not that he'd ever admit that. Even so, just being in the theatre club was good enough, and he didn't have to perform in front of a crowd, managing to stay behind the scenes. Lukas occasionally helped out the costume department when he had time, stitching up broken outfits and re-attaching buttons that fell off of things. His job in the theatre club was overall not bad, most members weren't as obnoxious as the Romanian and he got to spend time with his little brother who had also (reluctantly) signed up to work backstage. He got time out of his otherwise boring lessons and received other perks that come with a position such as his, despite the insults he'd get in the corridors due to stereotypes associated with males in theatrical work, not that he hadn't expected then.

Today was another rehearsal for their upcoming spring production of Romeo and Juliet, the part of Romeo going to Vlad (The Romanian) and the part of Juliet going to a girl named Emma from Belgium who had blonde hair and a sweet tooth; the two seemed to work together without difficulty which was a relief as unnecessary drama really wasn't needed this close to a production. Vlad was speaking his lines in a loud, booming voice making the scene as entirely unrealistic as possible as Emma stood on the balcony, trying to at least _look_ like she was interested and impressed by what he had to say, an impressive feat. As if the loud voice wasn't annoying enough the boy began to make rapid hand gestures trying to emphasise the emotions in the words but instead making himself look like an utter prick- in Lukas' opinion. He did this all with a smile on his face, a _smile_ , as if he were actually somehow pleased with his monstrosity of a performance, believing it to be no less than perfect. The misguided fool's smile began to appear more like an arrogant smirk and that was when Lukas had decided he had had enough, turning the light ever so slightly and watching with contentment as it shone into Vladimir's eyes, waiting a few seconds for a reaction before being presented with exactly what he had wanted, the boy on stage turned to him with and crossed his arms "What the _fuck_ , man? Did you do that on purpose? Can't you see I'm acting here?"

Lukas had merely waved the comment off, assuring him that _no, of course I didn't do that on purpose, I am_ so _sorry,_ before moving the light away from his eyes with the faintest hint of a triumphant smirk, glad he had managed to disrupt the awful show before him if only for a second.

After theatre club had called it a night and dismissed it's pupils, Lukas collected his belongings and headed for the doors, saying farewell to his brother who was going to spend the night at his friend from the club's house, this normally would have been something that Lukas had objected to, but it was late in the evening and Emil had pleaded with him, telling him it was for Li Xiao's birthday, and Lukas had simply nodded, muttering an 'alright', deciding it would be nice to spend the evening alone for once, not having the house invaded by his pesky Danish friend either considering that he had gone on holiday. He shrugged on his jacket, reaching for the door handle before stopping with the touch of a hand on his shoulder, turning round to face the one who had disrupted his thoughts and being greeted by a disgruntled looking Romanian. Yes, Vlad, of all people, had decided now would be a wonderful time to speak to him about something, probably about the lighting 'incident' from earlier, which he would simply shrug off once again as being a complete accident. He stared at him with blank eyes. "...Can I help you?"

"Yes you can," was the too-quick and yet again _loud_ reply "That was a cruel thing of you to do, interrupting me in the middle of my brilliant and emotional scene. You're going to have to make it up to me. How about coffee, on you? There's a shop just around the corn-"

"I don't owe you anything."

There was no deflecting will from eyes that determined looking. "But, you see, you did that on purpose, I know you did, and now you have to make it up to me."

A long pause.

"…Fine. As long as you'll leave me alone afterwards, I'll do it." He wasn't quite sure why he had agreed, he could have quite easily refused him again. Perhaps it was the pitiful state of his acting that had made him feel sorry for him. _Yeah,_ Lukas thought, _it was probably that._

Vladimir's eyes widened in shock, he had surely not expected agreement to come so quickly and so easily from one so cold. "Really?"

Another sigh. So much for his evening alone.

"Yes, really. Come on, before I change my mind," With that, the door was pushed open and they left the theatre which was devoid of most of its members by now "Oh. Don't touch me without my permission again, got it?"

A nod.


	2. Chapter 2

The walk to the coffee shop had been uneventful, mostly comprised of Vlad trying to make small talk and Lukas trying his hardest to ignore him, occasionally providing a small grunt or a few words where it was unavoidable. It was safe to say this was not Lukas' idea of fun. Lukas was not especially fond of talking with people if they were not close to him. He knew Vlad through theatre club and they shared a few classes, but did not communicate much at all. For the most part what Lukas knew about the Romanian had come from snippets of conversations he had overheard when Vlad had been on set. He knew that the Romanian had a younger brother and that their family was poor in contrast to his own, for example. From the mainly one-sided conversation Vlad was having now, he also knew that the boy had a bad taste in literature and also an interest in the occult- interesting but useless information that Lukas had no doubt he would forget about later.

When they had reached the coffee shop, a mere five minute walk from the school campus, Vlad had held open the door for him, saying it was 'only the right thing to do'. He was probably still stuck in character. Oh, he must think himself such a _gentleman_. Lukas also knew that the Romanian was obnoxious.

A brief discussion between themselves about what they wanted to order and Lukas had gotten up, pulling his wallet out of his jacket pocket and walking up to the counter, leaving it on the back of his chair. Lukas realized too late that this was probably a bad idea considering his lack of complete trust for the Romanian combined with his knowledge of Vlad's economical situation, but decided to let it pass after taking a quick glance back and finding Vlad staring absently out of the window at the street outside bathed in a dim orange glow from the streetlights.

He made his orders quickly, trying not to let his shyness show to the stranger behind the counter and waited a few moments, gently tapping his fingernails subconsciously against the wood of the surface in front of him. After receiving the coffees he returned to the table he and his co-worker had chosen to sit at and placed the plastic cup down in-front of the Romanian with little delicacy, effectively stirring the boy from his daydream, moving his gaze from the window back to the slender boy who had just bought him coffee and was looking rather un-amused.

"Thanks." was the one word that had come to Vlad's mind, but it seemed to suffice, Lukas giving a small nod and sitting back down in his seat, his fingers still wrapped around his own plastic cup and taking a small sip, his expression wholly unchanged, making him unsure if the Norwegian liked it or not. He sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping at his own coffee before realizing Lukas was not going to attempt to make conversation and begins to start up his own again, hoping to get more than silence as a reply, drawing out the first word. "So… Your coffee good?"

A nod.

"That's great," he paused, tapping on his cup, the Styrofoam squeaking slightly, thinking of something else to try. "Why'd you sign up for the theatre club?"

"To get out of classes." Flatly spoken. This was only a half-truth, of course, but it wasn't a complete lie, Lukas did want to get out of his other classes. He would never admit, let alone to someone he hardly knew, that he was there because he wanted to act. He worked the lights and that's what everyone thought he was there for. So that's what he told people he was there for, to work the lights and get out of class.

"Well that's boring… No hidden fantasies of being famous? No crushes to stalk?"

Lukas' expression remained unchanged. "No."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"A boyfriend?"

"No."

Vlad paused for merely a second before grinning "Which way do you swing, Lukas?"

Lukas took another sip of his coffee. "None of your business."

Vlad found himself falling into silence again and, unsurprisingly, Lukas did not attempt to start up another conversation. They spent about 20 more minutes in the coffee shop, Vlad opening his mouth every now and again to speak, only closing it again when he realized Lukas would not be interested in continuing the conversation for a long period of time. He was about to say something once again before Lukas stood up and pushed his chair under the table, shrugging on his jacket.

"I'm going home now."

It was only then Vlad noticed the lack of a coffee cup on the table. How long ago did Lukas finish his coffee, how long was he just sitting around for? He supposed it didn't matter. Vlad also stood up and tucked his own chair under the table, not having a jacket to put on, and reached for Lukas' hand to shake.

"No touching, remember?"

A sigh.

"Well…" the Romanian smiled "Anyway, thanks for the coffee."

He only got a noise of acknowledgement in reply.

"…I guess I'll see you again in theatre club."

Another small noise.

"Good night, Lukas."

Vlad did shake his hand as he walked past, but only briefly, and left quick enough to make sure Lukas wouldn't punish him for doing so. Lukas merely paused for a moment before shaking his head and leaving a tip in the jar on the counter before heading out into the night and back to his own apartment to finally enjoy the night of quiet he had promised himself, setting himself up with homework he needed to catch up on before curling up in front of the TV with a cup of coffee, watching some film on some channel that he didn't know the name of and wasn't really paying attention to, falling asleep soon after, coffee left to go cold on the table, and the voices from the television still resonating through the apartment.

Lukas decided that night that coffee from the coffee shop tasted better than coffee from home.


	3. Chapter 3

Lukas stumbled into school, looking a little more tired than usual. He had awoken later than was normal for him due to keeping waking up in the night- a not uncommon occurrence but still a nuisance- and had therefore not been able to drink his desired amount of morning coffee, leaving him both in a sleepy and grouchy state, which both Emil and Mathias had been sure to comment on. Lukas had also been sure to _accidentally_ stick his foot out when Mathias was walking by and make him trip. Today was not going to be a good day for people who tried to mess with him.

The day passed rather smoothly, given the coffee-deprivation situation. Lukas did not fall asleep in any of his classes, despite how close he came to it. He took all the notes he needed to take that day and whilst doing so noticed the lack of Emma in any of their shared classes. He supposed she had decided to sleep in today or had caught a cold, but pushed it to the back of his mind, thinking that the most that would come of it would be a reason to not have Vladimir act today. Maybe this was a better thing than he had anticipated. He made a mental note to thank Emma when she came back.

At lunch he had gotten his much needed cup of coffee and the last lessons of the day went much more smoothly than the first few. Lukas had sat with Mathias, Berwald and Tino, the fist being his roommate and the others being his close friends. Mathias and Lukas shared their apartment with Emil, Lukas' younger brother who also worked the lights in theatre club, although he had refused to sit with their group on the account of them being 'embarrassing'. Mathias had made it very verbally clear that he though Emil had just gone off to make-out with his Asian friend- Li Xiao was it? Somewhere that Lukas would not see and would therefore not complain. Lukas disregarded this, trying to view his little brother as better than that but was still inwardly seething. Mathias merely laughed and told him that:

"Hey, it was bound to happen eventually. You should just be glad it's that kid and not someone years older than him with a strange beard and hygiene issues. Or a drug dealer. Or a murderer."

Lukas groaned, this wasn't helping at all, and he put his head in his hands. He was going to have a word with Emil tonight.

Mathias only laughed again.

Vlad watched Lukas walk in through the door and throw his bag down in the usual place among the others and go to his station by the lights. Their teacher, Mr Vargas, clapped for attention soon after.

"As some of you may already know: Emma, our Juliet, fell and broke her leg yesterday evening and so will not be in school for a while," Vlad raised his eyebrows, this was news to him. _Emma should know by now that when people say break a leg, they don't mean it literally_ , he thought, and then mentally slapped himself for being cruel. "This means that we need to find someone new to play Juliet." The theatre fell silent, the boys looking around and the girls shrinking as far back into the crowd as possible, not wanting to work with the theatre's Romeo or just otherwise not wanting to play the role. No hands were put up up in the air and no-one spoke out or was volunteered. "No one? Really?" Mr Vargas looked disheartened. "But… If we can't find a Juliet, we can't go on with the show…"

A long pause, the atmosphere heavy with anticipation.

Vlad ginned as his eyes lit up "I know someone who can do it," He looked unfazed, despite being the first and only individual to say anything on the matter. He thrust a finger in Lukas' direction "Lukas can do it! There are more than enough people on the lights!"

Mr Vargas looked confused for a second, looking up and down the slender Norwegian, trying to determine if he would be a suitable candidate for a female before nodding to himself and smiling slightly, looked pleased. He was obviously not expecting a male actor for Juliet but was glad for a replacement for Emma. "Excellent idea, Vladimir! Lukas is very feminine looking; he would make a wonderful Juliet! Mr Bondevik, I have great anticipation for your audition."

Lukas looked visibly a little shocked, pausing for a moment before opening his mouth, conflicted between wanting to act and becoming very self-conscious and shy, all eyes on the room being on him now. "But I don't-"

"Uh uh uh, no excuses! I want you to be ready to audition by tomorrow!"

Lukas pushed his shyness to the side for a second to shoot a dark glare at Vlad, who only grinned a little more in response.

"I took you out for coffee once and all of a sudden you want me to be your Juliet?"

A gasp could be heard from a member of the audience and a Hungarian girl from the costume department- Lukas believed her name to be Elizabeta- piped up.

"Luke! You took that idiot out? I thought you had better tastes!"

Vlad looked incredibly offended and Lukas rolled his eyes.

"It's Lukas. And I do."

Another short pause ensued before Emil turned to Lukas with a confused expression at first before the hint of a smirk danced in his eyes. "Lukas? A boyfriend? I'm so telling Mathias."

"Don't you dare. And he's _not_ my boyfriend. I don't even like him."

Another glance around the room and Lukas decided he had had enough. "You guys can stop looking at me now."

A murmur of agreement was the overall response and people turned and went back to their own little conversations, filling the room with incomprehensible words. Lukas let out breath he didn't know he was holding in, incredibly thankful everyone had stopped looking at him. Well, nearly everyone. Mr Vargas was still smiling happily at him "You'll make a great Juliet, I'm sure."

Lukas nodded and looked at the ground, not sure how else to respond to his teacher and shuffled back to his position at the lights, waiting for people to go back to their places before picking up his bag and going to sneak out to get some much needed coffee after today's drama. He would not need to thank Emma after all.

His attempt at leaving un-noticed would have been successful if not for the Romanian who had got him into this mess watching him throwing his bag over his shoulder. Vlad shot into motion and headed towards the boy.

"Lukas wai-!" But his efforts were in vain as Lukas shut the door in his face and considered going to the coffee shop before just heading back to the apartment.

He stood on the doorstep shivering, as he had forgotten to take a jacket with him and was greeted by a beaming Mathias ushering him into their place. He began to say something about Lukas being silly for not taking a coat with him before he was interrupted. _The Dane always said such unnecessarily obvious and stupid things,_ he thought.

"-I'm going to bed, don't believe anything Emil tells you."

"Wha? Lukas, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He walked past the taller boy with unruly hair to make himself a coffee, waiting in the kitchen for a moment before taking his mug and heading to his bedroom.

"Lukas?" Mathias obstructed his path, really wanting to know what was up with him.

"Get out of my way."

"Not until you tell me what's wron-"

"I said," he paused, his voice laced with malice. "Get out of my way."

Mathias had learnt in his time knowing Lukas that disobeying orders spoken in a tone like that was a bad idea, and even someone as 'simple minded' as he was- as Lukas would put it- knew _to step out of the way._

"If you ever need to talk about anything you know I'm here, right?"

Lukas didn't pause even for a second "Sure. Good night." Lukas walked into his bedroom and shut the door in his friends face.

Mathias scratched his head. He would never understand the Norwegian. _Time to wait for what Emil has to say_ , he thought to himself before heading off to the kitchen to fetch his own coffee mug.


	4. Chapter 4

Lukas awoke with a feeling of dread knotted into the pit of his stomach, although it had taken a while to realize why. He had spent half an hour convincing himself to crawl out of bed, trying to delude himself into thinking that he gave a damn about the outside world more than he did about his own sleep. Eventually, he had won the struggle and, with a groan, had slid out from below the warm, pleasant and familiar sheets into the coldness of the house, walking past Mathias without so much as acknowledging him, heading straight for the kettle to boil some water for coffee.

It was safe to say that Lukas was not a morning person.

After taking a few sips from his warm cup, a nice contrast from the chill on the exposed areas of his arms and legs (having decided not to bother changing out of his pyjamas- some boxers and a t-shirt), Lukas had realized why he was dreading the day ahead. _Fuck._ Why the hell had the stupid Romanian decided it would be such a good idea to suggest that Lukas partake in the play? Even audition for a starring role? And of course Mr Vargas just _had_ to find it to be a brilliant idea. He was probably the only one who thought any of Vladimir's ideas were any less than atrocious. He let out a small sigh, sinking closer to the table, trying to hide as much of his face in the coffee cup as was possible, with a shred of hope that it would engulf him and take him far away from this place, or at least spill all over his face and leave him with burns that he would need to take time off of school to treat. Another sigh. He briefly contemplated just not going into school at all and taking the day off. That way he could catch up with all the things he was behind on and spend the rest of the time being glad he could stay away from Vlad and the theatre club. They could find another Juliet, right? Of course they could. But…

 _But what? But nothing, you don't really want to do this._

…

He didn't… Right? No. Not with Vlad, anyway.

He took a final sip of his coffee, awake enough now to make rational decisions. Taking a day off school was a no go. He didn't want to fall behind in any classes and have to spend time catching up, he valued his sleep too much. So, begrudgingly, he stood up and pushed his chair back, heading back to his bedroom to pack up his things for the day and get dressed, running a hand through his hair.

The walk to school had taken longer than usual, due to the combination of Lukas walking slowly and Lukas occasionally stopping to consider once again if he should just turn around and go home. Eventually he had reached the large glass doors at the entrance and had looked up at the windows on the floors above before swinging the doors open and stepping inside, noticing Vlad near the entrance and glaring at him, remembering Mathias' words this morning: _"So, Emil told me you have a boyfriend now? What's he like, Lukey?"_ This had been spoken whilst Mathias had worn this awful, shit-eating grin. Lukas did not want to look at, let alone talk to Vlad this morning. Or at all, for that matter. He could do without seeing the kid ever again, it was like he had been the cause of everything bad that had happened to Lukas as of late.

But, as fate would have it, the idiot had turned to look at him at just the wrong moment and noticed the glare. It appeared, however, he didn't know how to take a hint, as the next minute he was sauntering over all sunshine and rainbows as if all the bad in the world had disappeared. _Nope_ , Lukas thought. _Vlad was still entirely solid and visible. What a shame._

What happened next put even more of a damper on his already sour mood. Lukas had known that he did not look the best this morning, didn't care much for the fact if nobody had brought it up. But Vlad, of course…

"Hey Lukas, looking good!" He called much louder than was needed, causing a few others in the proximity to turn and stare. The statement was followed by a low whistle and this was the final straw.

"Oh, bite me." Lukas spoke coolly, maintaining his composure, roiling his eyes as the Romanian had already managed to annoy him beyond any bearable or conceivable limit, not five minutes after he'd turned up for school. _A record, perhaps_ , he noted. And…

 _Oh, oh_ _ **no**_ _._

Vlad's eyes lit up in a way that suggested that he was somehow so dense as to consider the offer to be serious in any respect. He grins that lopsided, toothy grin of his that quite frankly pissed Lukas off more than it should, a cross between cocky and idiotic; it reminded him of a few other people, no less moronic, that he knew. With the exception of those weirdly sharp canines which were undoubtedly Vlad in every way.

Lukas rubbed his temples, looking entirely displeased. "Dream on, vampire boy. You're gross." Vlad's smile only dropped a little, and Lukas added a groan for emphasis of his discomfort. Vlad replied in a melodic voice, a small smirk beginning to form on his face, obviously finding the sentence he thought up to be much better and more amusing than it actually was.

"I'll just ask again when you're more awake then, Juliet!"

Not bothering to remind Vlad that he hadn't actually gotten the part yet, Lukas shot a final dark look towards Vlad before walking off, exchanging the usual pleasant, forced 'good bye' for flipping the Romanian off. It was better than being entirely ignored, he supposed. Not that he cared anyway.


	5. Questionable Drabble

Lukas and Vlad decide to settle down for the night, turning off the main light, leaving on a couple of fairy lights at the side of the room- Vlad had an affinity for the things, it seemed, as they were _everywhere_.

"Alright, well I'm going to get changed. See you in a minute, Lukey." He said, with one of his signature grins- obnoxious and annoying- Lukas thought. The Norwegian busied himself with sorting out his own things and laying his sleeping bag out on the bed, the soft fabric greatly contrasting all of the cheap items that littered the rest of Vlad's room. He looked up at the posters hung slightly unevenly over the walls, each slanted off to the side at a slightly different angle. 'Charming', some would have thought, Lukas just thought it looked messy and careless, as though he could have expected anything more from the boy. His eyes next moved to the framed photo on his desk, of Vlad and his little brother, Alin, smiling together on what seemed to be a bridge probably in some exotic and faraway land, such as the next town over. Vlad's family must take the most interesting holidays, thought Lukas as he moved a little closer to look at the two's smiling faces, finding something a little endearing about it, even if the photo quality wasn't so good.

And it was at that moment Vlad emerged back from the bathroom at last and Lukas sat himself away from the photo again, not bothering to offer Vlad the decency of giving him his attention, instead opting for collecting up his own pyjamas to put on

"Hey, Lukey. What do you think?" Just those words and Lukas knew that the smirk was on Vlad's face again, that much was apparent just from his tone of voice. Reluctantly he turned his eyes to Vlad and immediately regretted his decision.

What met his eyes was a very small and very revealing piece of clothing that nonetheless looked more expensive than a good amount of objects in this room combined. It was a tiny piece of seemingly high-quality lace, sewn together to fit over the private areas of a male's anatomy, specifically designed for a guy. If it had been something more decent, Lukas would have taken the time to think about how nice it was to see lingerie specifically created for men to a high standard. Instead all he thought about was how on earth could Vlad keep this offensive _dick sock_ on, not just because it was awful but also because somehow it didn't need a strap. Surely one of life's greater mysteries.

"…What the hell are you wearing?" was the only thing that Lukas could think to say in that moment, not actually having the sense of shame to redirect his eyes, just staring at the item in utter horror at the fact someone could make something quite so distasteful in the form of 'underwear'. Vlad actually had the audacity to look offended at this, puffing up his cheeks slightly and turning his head away indignantly, putting his hands on his hips and making a noise of discontentment, as if Lukas was the one who had just committed what was surely some form of sin in the form of clothing.

"It's _called_ fashion, Lukey. It's a men's C-string and it's very good quality. I ordered it from overseas online, and it arrived just the other day. I must have mistaken you, Lukey," he said with a somewhat mournful look on his face "I thought I'd finally met someone who would have had some form of taste. I'm disappointed." Vlad didn't seem to have enough of a sense of shame to go and put on something decent, either, and just stood there looking horribly offended still.

"Well…" began Lukas "I'm going to get changed. If you don't remove that offensive thing by the time I've gotten back and replaced it with something fit for human viewing, then I'll personally call the police to come remove it from you. It must be some sort of crime to wear something like that, anyway."

"Aww..." Vlad's pout deepened. "I was hoping you'd be the one to take it off…" No, he really didn't have any sense of shame.

Lukas' disgust only became more visible, standing up and moving to the bathroom, taking his eyes off of Vlad, finally. "And again, vampire boy, you're gross."

He shut the door behind him, making one last disgusted glance at Vlad, who only replied with another indignant huff. Okay, so maybe Alin in the family photo was endearing. Lukas didn't even know if Vlad had the ability to be endearing, not after seeing him in that, at least.


End file.
